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Apple hires one of ARM’s top chip designers

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Filippo signed on in May. He’s working in Austin, a known hub for Apple’s semiconductor plans.

His experience bodes well for many Apple products, since Apple uses ARM-based chips not just as the heart of its mobile hardware, but as companions in Macs. You could see iPhones and iPads that continue to push boundaries. However, he may play a crucial role in expanding Apple’s use of custom processing power. The company is rumored to be making custom ARM processors for Macs, not to mention an augmented reality headset. Both of those will need both a lot of computing power and exceptional battery life, and Filippo could help Apple achieve those goals.

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British Airways will let you track your luggage with RFID tags

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The move by British Airways reflects a greater trend of the airline industry embracing radio frequency identification technology. Delta rolled out RFID luggage tags back in 2016, allowing passengers to view their bag’s location on the FlyDelta mobile app. Last summer, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) voted to deploy RFID globally by 2020. At that point, all bags will be tracked with RFID baggage tags from the moment they’re checked. This will allow passengers and airline employees to view their bag’s location at all times.

Losing your luggage is every traveler’s worst nightmare, but airlines have gotten better at prevention. Over the past decade, airlines have seen a 70 percent drop in lost luggage according to SITA. Still, tracking down lost or mishandled baggage costs the airline industry a significant chunk of change — an estimated $2 billion back in 2016. Deploying RFID tracking will likely save airlines some money, not to mention spare headaches for travelers.

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Netflix’s ‘Dark Crystal’ series adds Sigourney Weaver and more big names

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Benedict Wong, who’s surely familiar with star-filled casts from his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will portray The General, while Awkwafina will appear as The Collector. Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and The Wasp) and puppeteer Dave Goelz (who featured in the original Dark Crystal) have also been announced as cast members.

They join the likes of Taron Edgerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mark Hamill, Helena Bonham Carter, Alicia Vikander, Andy Samberg, Simon Pegg, Caitriona Balfe, Eddie Izzard, Toby Jones, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, Mark Hamill, Jason Isaacs and Keegan-Michael Key. To help keep you tiding over until the series drops at the end of August, here’s another look at that spellbinding trailer:



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Silksong’ is a faster, more elegant sequel

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While its creators recently told fans they wanted it to match “the quality and scale of Hollow Knight” before announcing a release date, this week, I got to spend over 20 minutes playing through two different areas of the game, and it feels like it must be pretty close. Please?

In the sequel, you play as Hornet, a slender, faster character that mixes different skills and attacks which make Silksong feel slicker and more urgent than Hollow Knight. Hornet’s abilities, which you might recall from the first game, are silk-based attacks mixed in with diagonal dives and plenty of jumping. Now, as you’re in control of her, those silk abilities are tied to her life.

When she’s accumulated enough silk by bashing enemies, she can treat herself to a swift health burst that heals three masks. Hollow Knight only healed a single mask after a second or so of focus — it’s probably the most obvious indicator about how the game is built around a more chaotic, thrilling play style. Recall how Doom was reinvented a few years ago: you’re on the attack now, fight hard, because your life and victory depends on it.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

There’s a drawback to this swift recovery, however. Hornet’s “Bind” healing move will consume your entire silk meter — so don’t screw it up.

My demo re-trod the parts of the game Nintendo showed off at E3: The Moss Grotto, which appears to be the start of the game, and Deep Docks. Moss Grotto feels similar to the greener parts of Hollow Knight, and acted as an opportunity to acquaint yourself to playing with a different type of character. Hornet’s jumps seem more elongated and vertical, and she’ll even automatically vault onto platforms she bumps into, which is a forgiving (read: welcome) change from the original game.

Deep Docks, however, threw several more skills your way (a dash ability that is continuous, rejoice!), and pitted you against trickier enemies ( the developers are promising far more enemy types) and a couple of more major antagonists.

This was what I was looking forward to. Hollow Knight‘s tour de force may be its boss battles: an opportunity to show how well you can control the character, and the degree of mastery you have over new moves and upgrades.

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EA patched Origin security flaws that put millions of users at risk

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The vulnerabilities took advantage of abandoned subdomains, EA Games’ use of authentication tokens and single sign-on and TRUST mechanisms built into the user login process. Had an attack been carried out, it could have been devastating, given that EA is the world’s second largest gaming company and millions of user accounts would have been at risk.

The vulnerabilities are a reminder of how susceptible online and cloud platforms are to breaches. “These platforms are being increasingly targeted by hackers because of [the] huge amounts of sensitive customer data they hold,” said Check Point’s Oded Vanunu. Check Point and CyberInt advise gamers to enable two-factor authentication and only use official websites to download or purchase games. The companies also caution that parents should warn children about the threat of online fraud.

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NSA improperly collected even more call records than we thought

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The report finds that the NSA improperly collected call record data in November 2017, February 2018 and again in October 2018. The October violation suggests the over-collection problems persisted (or new ones arose) even after the NSA admitted its error, and it might have had something to do with the NSA’s formal recommendation that the White House drop the phone surveillance program. According to the ACLU, the government said the improper collections had a “significant impact on civil liberties and privacy.”

“These documents further confirm that this surveillance program is beyond redemption and a privacy and civil liberties disaster,” said Patrick Toomey, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. The USA Freedom Act, a scaled down version of the Patriot Act, is set to expire in December, and the information revealed by the ACLU will undoubtedly contribute to the debate over whether or not to renew it. Regardless of the outcome, the NSA will likely continue sweeping up Americans’ call record data. The agency doesn’t have a good track record, and in 2018, the NSA conducted nearly 10,000 warrantless search queries of Americans’ calls, texts and emails — records that were swept up with intelligence on foreigners living overseas.

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Apple News debuts a guide to the 2020 Democrat hopefuls

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The guide won’t simply be a hodgepodge of random headlines, but rather curated specifically by a team of Apple news editors, and as candidates drop out of the race, the guide will evolve to give more coverage to those still in the running. According to Apple, the 2020 Democratic field is “complex,” and the guide will act as a “robust and reliable resource” for readers.

For Apple, the project certainly puts the company in a strong position — in a period where fake news and sensationalist headlines are rife, a go-to guide will be a boon for those looking to understand the political landscape in a balanced way. And it demonstrates that Apple is committed to its news service, rather than viewing it as a nice consumer bolt-on.

The guides can be found in the Top Stories section within the Apple News app on iPhones, iPads and Macs. The app is free, although some news articles within the guides will sit behind paywalls — readers can access these via Apple’s News+ service, which costs $10 a month and provides access to 300 magazines and newspapers.

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Facebook, Google and others come together to set benchmarks for AI

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The benchmarks, named MLPerf Inference v0.5, center around three common machine learning tasks: image classification, object detection and machine translation. Given the different processing abilities of different devices, there are separate benchmarks for AI across various platforms, such as smartphones, servers and chips.

As well as providing best practice guidance for companies in the AI field, it’s hoped the benchmarks will help kick-start further innovation as, despite its hype, organizations have been slow to pick up the technology. In a statement, MLPerf’s general chair Peter Mattson said, “By creating common and relevant metrics to assess new machine learning software frameworks, hardware accelerators, and cloud and edge computing platforms in real-life situations, these benchmarks will establish a level playing field that even the smallest companies can use.”

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San Francisco bans the sale of e-cigarettes

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‘Did you… ‘
NASA just witnessed its biggest methane gas emission on Mars

Alright, stop giggling at the back. NASA confirmed that the Curiosity rover recently detected the “largest amount of methane ever measured during the mission.” The levels were enough to pause the rover’s activities as scientists sought more answers: Methane is a gas typically produced by life as we know it, after all, and it could well be a sign of life on the planet.

It will last for 48 hours from July 15th to 16th.

Amazon’s Prime Day will be two days this year

Like that friend that decides to have a birthday ‘week,’ Amazon has decided to stretch its annual conspicuous consumption sale across two days. Amazon’s annual Prime Day this year will start at midnight PT/3AM ET on July 15th and will last for 48 hours. If you wanted more options, good news: Target is planning to run its own sale across the same period.

The price is attractive, but the 1000XM3 is still the best choice for most people.
Sony XB900N headphones review: Solid noise cancellation for under $300

Billy Steele says bass lovers will have plenty to like about the XB900N’s emphasis on low-end tone. However, what you can get for $100 more on the 1000XM3 is worth the extra cost, especially in noise cancellation. Plus, the bass-heavy tuning isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking to save some money though, there’s a lot to like here.

Nice speed if you’re somewhere it’s available.
T-Mobile launches 5G in six cities, will start Galaxy S10 5G sales on June 28th

T-Mobile’s 5G network is active in parts of Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York, and now you can get Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G to connect to it. The carrier — which is still seeking approval for a merger with Sprint — says it won’t charge a premium for 5G, unlike some carriers, and that it won’t raise prices on plans for at least three years.

In a tweet, Netflix reminded users they can still watch the show ‘ad-free’ until 2021.
Netflix loses ‘The Office’ after 2020 to NBCUniversal’s service

Next year, NBCUniversal will launch an ad-supported streaming service, and once 2021 strikes, it will have “the number one series in subscription video on-demand” as an exclusive. That’s the time when Netflix’s deal to carry all nine seasons expires, and NBC will bring it home.

It can gather energy from the sun, but not a huge amount.
The Lightyear One is a solar-powered car with an eye-watering price

Dutch clean-mobility company Lightyear has debuted its long-range prototype car, the Lightyear One, with a range of 725 km (450 miles) and a small battery charged by sunlight or from conventional charging stations. The roof and hood of the car are covered with five square meters of solar cells beneath safety glass, which the company claims is “so strong that a fully-grown adult can walk on them without causing dents.”

If you want the Lightyear One, the reservation fee for one of the first 500 cars is a hefty €119,000, equivalent to $135,000, and delivery isn’t expected until 2021. A car that powers itself with green energy remains a unique proposition.

But wait, there’s more…

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Polar’s latest watch knows if you’re too tired for a full workout

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As well as the usual sleep quality insights, Polar Ignite also offers recovery insights, which measure how well you’ve recuperated from stress and training throughout the day. Using an optical sensor in the watch, the feature measures the status of your autonomic nervous system, which reveals how recovered you actually are, regardless of how well-rested you feel. The watch then combines this data with FitSpark, a daily training guide, for personalized cardio and strength training based on what it believes your body is capable of.

The watch comes with a host of other features, such as guided breathing exercises, run and swim metrics, calorie tracking and so on, but it’s certainly its recovery insights function that sets it apart from other wearables. Having a lousy workout can be pretty disheartening if your tracker is urging you to go for it all guns blazing — the Polar Ignite at least recognizes when you’re at the top of your game, and knows when to give you a break if you’re not. The watch costs $230 from Polar.com, with optional silicon accessory bands costing $25.

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